


Bloody Mary

by ForxGood



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Bloody Mary - Freeform, F/F, We have fun tbh, also featuring, and emotionally stunted Holtzmann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 09:06:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10214171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForxGood/pseuds/ForxGood
Summary: Back to the drawing board, take 'god-knows-how-many-by-now'. Holtzmann tries to ask Erin out by promising her a lovely chat with the totally benign spirit of Bloody Mary.Things don't exactly go according to plan.





	

“Sometimes, when I’m all alone–  _sometimes_ while you’re still here–” Holtzmann smirks, her eyes intense as she gazes at the other woman. “I’ll slip into the bathroom and shut off the light so I’m in complete darkness…” She pauses, trying to be dramatic. “I then stand in front of the mirror and say ‘Bloody Mary’ three times just to see what happens.”

Erin had just been sitting there, behind her desk, when Holtzmann had seen it fit to walk over to her, her piercing blue eyes making it clear to Erin she had something to say that  _couldn’t_  wait. Erin, always one with a natural curiosity, had immediately rested her head in her hands to look at Holtzmann, listening intently as the blonde approached her, incredibly intrigued by what she had to say…

Only to roll her eyes and swat the blonde’s arm when she had finished. “ _Seriously_ , Holtzmann?!” 

“Yes.  _Seriously_.” Her eyes were large as if she had made some grand breakthrough, the engineer smirking at Erin.

Bait, line, and sinker.  _Yes._  Erin was interested. Holtzmann has succeeded. This was her ‘back to the drawing board idea’, her next attempt to try and get the beautiful physicist to date her. Maybe if she could just get Erin alone, she could properly ask her out. In the presence of Dr. Gorin and Abby, maybe the redhead had panicked.

And… perhaps by just stating ‘we’re dating’ wasn’t the best tactic.

Not that this looked to be much more promising so far. Erin seemed more annoyed than intrigued, but Holtzmann could see the cogs in her mind working. Erin was, at the very least, curious.

The woman had never been able to resist a good ghost story, after all.

“So… What  _does_  happen?” She eventually asked, making Holtzmann wag a slender finger at her.

“Nuh-uh.” She grinned. “Ya gotta come with to see!”

Curiosity sufficiently piqued, Erin got up from her chair, before realizing something. “Ummm… So do we need to bring, like, ghostbusting equipment?” She asked. “I mean, last I checked ‘bloody mary’ wasn’t an innocent apparition…”

“Ha-oooooh.” Holtzmann sucked in a sharp, crisp breath. Of course she should have foreseen Erin wanting to be prepared. The blonde hadn’t envisioned the equipment in this scenario, but perhaps it would bring an added flourish– some, spark and originality. Yeah, she could ask Erin out, in a bathroom, wearing a pack…

She tilted her head.

_Yeah, it would be fine._

“Excellent idea, Gilbert.” She swaggered off to the Proton wall and unclipped one. “Needless to say, whatever happens in there, you will certainly be surprised.”

Maybe Erin would even be so overwhelmed with joy over the lack of ‘Bloody Mary’ she’d actually say yes to the date.

“I don’t doubt that.” Erin grinned, grabbing the small proton sidearm Holtz had made for her, as well as checking if the Swiss Army knife was still in her pocket. Once the pack was over her shoulders and clipped around her waist securely, she began the journey to the bathroom. She hadn’t even considered the added complication of her being alone with Holtzmann in a small, enclosed space until it was already too late, the two women standing in front of the bathroom mirror, each with a proton weapon at the ready. 

Erin felt her face flush when she realized her current predicament. 

 _Shoot_.

No amount of science in the  _world_  was worth Holtz maybe catching on to the crush she had begun developing on the enthusiastic, brilliant engineer. She had half a mind to just bail, to make up a fake emergency, to  _run like a bat out of hell_. But that would probably hurt Holtz’s feelings; she knew how important the blonde thought they all were, considering them all a family. And Erin not wanting to spend time with her did not fit into that family picture.

(Neither did Erin wanting to kiss her senseless, but she could control herself. She had repressed her bisexuality for decades, she could manage a few decades more).

Erin swallowed thickly when Holtzmann switched off the lights and they were surrounded in darkness, glad she wasn’t claustrophobic. She did feel her heart begin to race faster, but she was about 98.5% sure that that had nothing to do with her being in a dark room, and instead had everything to do with her being a dark room with  _Jillian Holtzmann_.

For a split second, she wondered if she could get away with kissing Holtzmann now and claiming that the ghost of Bloody Mary had done it. But she quickly dismissed that idea. For one, Holtz hadn’t called out for Bloody Mary yet. And besides, Bloody Mary was a vengeful spirit, incredibly malignant. She wouldn’t go around kissing people, not even people as ridiculously attractive as Holtzmann.

Holtzmann stared at herself in the mirror, amber tinted lenses staring back at her and then she saw Erin’s silhouette behind her shoulder. Her mind began to wander.  _They did look good together_. She let out a deep breath when the door clicked shut behind them. It was now or never right? Should she ask Erin before the whole ‘Bloody Mary’ show or after?  _After_ for sure. If she did it now the redhead could run away and then Holtzmann would never know if ‘Bloody Mary’ was a myth. She had to admit, she was  _curious_. 

“Y’all ready for this?” She laughed at herself.  _Y’all_. As in more than one person; what a laugh. It was just her and Erin and she was beginning to feel herself grow nervous. How did she get herself in this situation? Was she really this desperate for Erin’s attention?

Evidently, the answer was yes. How pathetic was she to use an ancient myth to try to get a handle on her feelings? She really was Reckless Jillian Holtzmann. When the lights were out it was easy to see the blinking of the lights on the equipment. An outsider may have thought it was a Christmas getup.

Erin nodded, gripping her proton gun a little tighter. “Ready. Let’s see how much truth there is to this.”

“Erin…” She tried to work up her courage, tried to just make her motives known, but instead, based on a nod she thought she had seen from Erin, Holtzmann squared up in front of the mirror.

“Bloody Mary…”

It was all dramatics.

“Bloody Mary…”

It was all pretend- her mind wandered; had she left the stove on?

“Bloody Mary.”

Why was she so nervous. It was fake, a joke.

 _Rattle. Rattle. Rattle._  

Ah, yes. The mirror shaking was a nice touch, she’d have to applaud Abby for this little prank later. Damn, that magnificent Abby, always the prankster. Only…

A thought suddenly struck her.

The brunette hadn’t known of her plan. _So how could she possibly make the mirror shake?_

Erin’s grip around the gun tightened even more as she heard the mirror rattling, her heart racing in her chest. She wondered if this was a bad idea after all. What if either of them got hurt? But then she remembered Holtz had mentioned doing this before. And Holtzmann would never willingly put her in danger.

But then, the mirror shattered, exploding and shooting glass projecting outward. Erin immediately ducked to cover her face, and Holtzmann leapt to cover Erin, getting cut herself in the process. She let out a cry of pain, _but at least_ , she thought, _it wasn’t Erin. At least Erin was safe._ And thank Higgs she had her glasses on. The last thing she needed was to get glass in her eyes. She already had strained vision from years and years of working with flames and electronics under shoddy fluorescent lighting.

“I feel like glass is after me personally. Just sayin’.” She couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to give a slight jab at Erin’s never ceasing slime problem. But, seriously, what was it with her and shattered glass? First there was the time Rowan threw her out the window, and now this? Ghosts sucked.

Then there was a shriek she would never forget, one that made Erin’s heart sing.

_The myth was real!_

Erin’s excitement soon made way for worry and anger, though. Yes, the myth was real, but the myth was now also attacking them. And it had already hurt Holtzmann; which, really, was further proof she couldn’t have gotten away with kissing the blonde. So instead of grinning in excitement, she just stepped in front of Holtzmann, proton gun aiming at the blue shimmering spectre floating in front of them. 

“You just messed with the wrong ghostbuster, lady.” Erin said, glaring at the ghost of Bloody Mary.

(And  _wow_ , she was glaring at the ghost of  _Bloody Mary_! This was  _definitely_  going in her diary.)

Holtzmann, meanwhile, had slowly scrambled up and was leaning against the wall of the bathroom. “Ya know, when I called for ya, I was hoping for a spicy minx with a stalk a celery stuck between her teeth, but now I’m just pissed.”

She could feel the blood trickle down the side of her face. Her arms and shoulders had a fine display of streaked blood, and in hindsight, this had been an awful day to wear a red tank top.

Maybe at least the blood wouldn’t stain.

“Erin’s gonna kick your spectral hieny. Hooligan. Kids today, I swear. Breakin’ mirrors like they own the place.” She sounded angrier than usual, Holtzmann seeing red and not from the copper she was tasting in her mouth.  _She could have gotten Erin hurt_. And tt still wasn’t over yet.

Erin only rolled her eyes at Holtz’s comment, much too in the flow of busting to pay much attention to what was happening around her. Instead, she aimed and took her first shot, growling a little when she missed.  _Damn_.

Not that Erin was one for giving up, of course. She never was, never had been (not counting the point where she left Abby because by then, she had fought so much already, even the best people knew when to call it a day). But even if that hadn’t been the case - this ghost had just hurt Holtzmann. Famous urban legend or not,  _nothing_  and  _nobody_  hurt the people she cared about without paying for it.

Bloody Mary glared and reached a withered hand towards Erin, her head turning and tilting at Holtzmann, eyes glinting in a way that could only be read as: ‘I will maim what you love and then torture you.’ “Aw. Erin, look. She wants a hug.”

Holtzmann was always full of comments, ranging from crude too immature, but when she saw Erin hold the proton gun and looking at Bloody Mary in such a manner, she had been rendered speechless. Damn, Erin really could be a badass when she wanted to be.

The fact that Mary was now coming straight at Erin actually worked in the redhead’s favour, Erin aiming again and this time hitting the ghost square on the chest. Realizing she’d hit the bullseye, Erin let out an excited whoop, eyes sparkling like a kid at Christmas, before realizing what hitting the bullseye was going to mean. “Oh shoot.”

Her face fell almost immediately, and not half a second later the spirit exploded before their eyes, covering Erin and the bathroom in ectoplasm. What with Holtzmann having crouched in a corner, the blonde only got a few specs on her, mostly steering clear of the scattered slimy green remnants of Bloody Mary. Erin, on the other hand, didn’t have such luck, ending up with globs of green goop all over her.

Because of course she did.

“Finally!” Holtzmann had whooped in excitement when she found out the slime had hit her. She had deemed it Murphy’s Law; the one who wants to be slimed, never gets slimed. And now, this was her shining moment as green mixed with red. But, then, Holtzmann’s infamous cackled flooded the room, because of course, Erin Gilbert was showered head to toe in green goop.

Man, what a day.

The blonde stood up slowly, using the wall beside her to aid her short journey into a standing position. “You just made Bloody Mary your bitch.”

Despite being covered in slime, Erin was feeling high on the adrenaline of this bust. Because Holtzmann did have a point there; she had just blasted  _Bloody Mary_  to oblivion. Ectoplasm or not, that was pretty darn awesome. So she let out an excited little laugh, her voice trembling a little with the excitement and exhilaration of it all. “It appears I did.”

But then it had sunk in what had just happened. And how Holtzmann had initially said she would do this ‘all the time’. And that’s when the anger began to set in a little, Erin turning to Holtzmann with fire blazing in her eyes. “What the  _hell_ , Holtzmann?! I thought you said you did this all the time! What were you _thinking_?!”

But she had barely begun her rant when she flipped the light back on, only to see Holtz was covered in a mixture of blood and ectoplasm, the blonde having gotten the worst of the glass damage from the mirror that had exploded almost immediately. And at the sight of that, Erin felt her anger fade a little, it being replaced instead by worry. Because while she was still pissed that Holtz had gotten them into this situation to begin with, and that all Holtz’s wounds were essentially her own fault, she still liked her. And she still worried over her.

So her expression softened a little, Erin instead shaking her head sighing. “Sit. We need to get those wounds cleaned up.”

Holtzman dipped her head guiltily, her eyes scanning the floor looking for some sort of an answer. And then it struck her, her selfishness could have gotten herself killed. Or worse, Erin killed. The blonde knew this. she knew not to toy with the paranormal. Ouji Boards were a no-no after a previous incident she had caused, what made Bloody Mary any different.

“I wasn’t thinking.” She mumbled.

All she had wanted to do was to ask Erin out. Now look at them. One was covered in blood, the other slime. And if Erin hadn’t been prepared, they would have died. All because Holtzmann wanted a date. Just one date.

“Clearly.” Erin just sighed again, grabbing a towel to wipe the worst of the slime off her face, before moving to the medicine cabinet. She filled a small bowl with water, grabbed both another towel and the first aid kit, and sank down in front of Holtzmann. Carefully cupping the blonde’s face in her hand, Erin dipped the towel into the water and carefully began to clean the wounds on Holtz’s face. 

The engineer, for her part, was looking oddly similar to a kicked and dejected puppy. “Erin…” The fact that she had been yelled at nearly killed her. Especially since it was Erin. “Erin, I’m sorry.” That was it, it was over. The particle physicist would never want to date her now.

“You could’ve gotten yourself killed.” Erin still sounded annoyed as she dabbed one of the cuts clean, but there was a hint of something else in her voice as well.

Worry. Fear. Relief. Maybe all of the above, Erin wasn’t sure.

Moving to clean the blood off the cloth, she began working on cleaning the other cuts, treating Holtzmann with as much care and gentleness as she could, not even wanting to risk hurting the blonde more. “What if I hadn’t been there? If you’d gone in there alone, without back-up?” She was sounding more scared than angry now, feeling a few tears well up in her face as realization hit that she could very well have lost Holtzmann had she not suggested they grab their gear for this. “What were you thinking?”

If the world could open up and swallow her whole right about now, that would be great. Holtzmann had never felt so low, so…  _miniscule_. To mess up the way she had was unexcusable. And in front of Erin? She was embarrassed. She felt the corners of her mouth turn downward, her teeth clenched together as she attempted to keep from crying. Erin had never yelled at her before, had never sounded so _disappointed_ in her before. Holtzmann accepted it - because let’s face it, she deserved it – but it still hurt her more than she cared to admit.

When Erin cupped her face, her skin felt like it was being scorched, and it wasn’t from the cuts. Her nose crinkled when the rag was pressed against her face, a small hiss emitted from between clenched teeth.  _You could’ve gotten yourself killed…_ The phrase kept being repeated in her mind. She had terrified Erin with her actions.

“I did bad…” She wouldn’t allow her lip to quiver, she didn’t want Erin to know just how vulnerable she was. “I didn’t think anything would happen.” Holtzmann began. The truth  _always_ came out. “I’ve never tried it…” Erin was sure to hate her now.

Erin shot Holtz an apologetic look as the engineer hissed in pain, resisting the urge to press a soft kiss to the blonde’s nose in comfort. Because really, they were friends. Just friends. There were certain lines she couldn’t cross. All she could do was be even more gentle with Holtzmann, carefully cleaning every cut and wiping away every glob of slime (of which there, luckily, wasn’t a lot).

She also suppressed the urge to roll her eyes when Holtz admitted to thinking she thought nothing would happen. That much had been clear from the situation they’d gotten themselves in, and it was clear as day that the engineer felt bad enough as it was. So she remained quiet, just letting Holtzmann speak as she tried to clean up the damage.

“I just… I just wanted to get you alone.” She realized that could be taken as creepy. “It’s rarely the two of us and I thought if I could get you into the bathroom we could talk one on one, but I panicked and made up the Bloody Mary thing.” Blue eyes averted green. “I never meant to put you in danger. I just wanted to ask you out…”

The physicist wanted to interrupt her then, to tell her that if she had wanted to talk then all she had to do was ask, but she kept quiet, as it was clear Holtz wasn’t finished speaking yet. So she just kept dabbing the cuts clean, having moved to an especially prominent gash on Holtz’s forehead when the final words were spoken.

‘ _I just wanted to ask you out’_

Erin’s hand slipped, the redhead staring at Holtzmann in pure and utter shock. 

“Y- you what?” She stammered out, mind reeling at those words. Because had Holtzmann, Jillian Holtzmann, the brilliant engineer Erin had had a crush on for  _months_  now, just told her she wanted to ask her out?  _Her_ , when Holtz could get any woman she wanted, 95% of whom would be better choices than Erin?

Wild, blonde hair fell into her eyes as she nodded. Her heart was thudding too quickly in her chest to the point that she couldn’t even feel the pain from the cuts anymore. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or the fear of rejection, but it felt as though the cuts were completely gone. The only thing burning now was the blush that was deeply set into her cheeks. 

Erin was quiet for a good minute there, trying to process what she’d just heard, and failing for the most part. Because clearly, Holtz must be joking. She couldn’t actually seriously like Erin, could she? But then she saw the blonde’s face, how dejected she looked, how embarrassed she seemed to admit that, and Erin decided that maybe it was time for her to be brave for once. 

After all, she had just made Bloody Mary her bitch, she could handle asking a pretty girl out.

“You know…” She began slowly, returning to cleaning the gash on Holtz’s forehead - which had still been bleeding, after all. “You didn’t need to summon a malignant Class 4 apparition to ask me out. I know my nickname is Ghost Girl, but I respond just as well to flowers. Just… for reference. If you ever felt like asking me out on a second date.” Her lips had twitched up into a slight smile, Erin clearly a little amused at the fact that Holtz had done this for her, despite her tone being rather nervous.

“Y-yeah…” Blue eyes forced themselves to look up at the particle physicist. She felt a gulp clench her throat as her tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. “I guess I’ve never really done anything by the book, I mean–” She let out a nervous laugh. “I’ve never summoned a malicious spirit to ask a woman out.” She usually did the old ‘slip-my-number-to-the-cute-girl’ trick at the bars she visited, but for obvious reasons, that wouldn’t have quite worked with Erin. 

And then the physicist’s words really hit her.

Second date…

 _Second_ date. That meant there was going to be a first. Holtzmann felt her face break into a grin and that was when she was dragged back to the reality that her face was all scratched up. She winced, but the grin stayed. “Noted.” She gave a curt nod. She gazed up into blue eyes, her heart finally calming enough for her to think. 

“Wait- so, just to clarify, we’re going on a date. You and me? Date? You don’t hate me after Bloody Mary?”

“Yes, Holtz.” Erin laughed. “You and me. Date.” She had finally dared to look at Holtzmann more properly, only to see the blonde was positively beaming, something which delighted Erin greatly.

No one had ever been quite this excited to go out with her.

She herself was near euphoric with excitement, never even having imagined the possibility of Holtzmann liking her back. Yet here they were, slimed and banged-up and bloodied, and Erin had never been happier.

Having cleaned the final wound, she let the towel drop back in the sink, using her free hand to carefully brush over the still in-tact skin of Holtzmann’s cheek. “And I could never hate you, Holtz… I actually think it was kind of sweet. Incredibly stupid, and stupidly dangerous… But sweet.”

“Score!” Holtzmann whooped, completely forgetting the fact that her face was still covered in cuts and bandaged, and wincing a she felt a painful pull as a result. “Ouch. Yes, okay, I think I need to not do that for a bit.”

“Probably not, no.” Erin replied, shaking her head in disbelief, still not quite understanding Holtzmann’s obvious excitement. It was endearing, though, and damn if it didn’t make Erin like her even more.

Still cupping Holtzmann’s face in her hands, Erin shot her a nervous smile, leaning up just a little. “I have an idea for something you could do, though…”

If it was possible to light up an entire room with just a smile, Jillian Holtzmann might just have managed that, the engineer looking near radiant as she leaned in to close the distance between them, kissing Erin with a gentleness the physicist hadn’t expected from the usually so chaotic blonde. Not that she was going to complain, however. She was kissing Holtzmann. Some things were too good to question.

Erin was the first to pull back, her touch still gentle on Holtzmann’s broken skin. Both of them were grinning like idiots, and it was hard to tell at this point who was happier about the current situation.

(And Erin supposed that she really should have expected this would be how they got together. Somehow, summoning an evil spirit just to ask someone out seemed like such a _Holtzmann_ thing to do… She couldn’t even bring herself to be mad anymore.)

“So, how do you feel about visiting a Haunted House for our date?”

_“Holtzmann!”_

**Author's Note:**

> Another work which would NOT exist without my marvelous, amazing, fantastic RP partner Sammi, aka freakin-faraday-cage. We never fully FINISHED this thread but it was a case of 'eh close enough' so I decided to edit and post regardless. As always, you can find me on Twitter at @ForxGood for updates on my life and my spare time writing. Come talk to me about my precious bisexual daughter Erin Gilbert and how terribly I am mistreating her in Treat You Better.


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